An nameless reader shares a report from KrebsOnSecurity: KrebsOnSecurity acquired a pleasant bump in visitors this week due to tweets from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) about “juice jacking,” a time period first coined right here in 2011 to explain a possible menace of knowledge theft when one plugs their cell gadget right into a public charging kiosk. It stays unclear what could have prompted the alerts, however the excellent news is that there are some pretty staple items you are able to do to keep away from having to fret about juice jacking.
The time period juice jacking crept into the collective paranoia of gadget geeks in the summertime of 2011, due to the headline for a narrative right here about researchers on the DEFCON hacker conference in Vegas who’d arrange a cell charging station designed to teach the unwary to the truth that many cell gadgets have been arrange to connect with a pc and instantly sync knowledge by default. Since then, Apple, Google and different cell gadget makers have modified the way in which their {hardware} and software program works in order that their gadgets now not robotically sync knowledge when one plugs them into a pc with a USB charging cable. As a substitute, customers are introduced with a immediate asking in the event that they want to belief a related pc earlier than any knowledge switch can happen. Alternatively, the expertise wanted to conduct a sneaky juice jacking assault has develop into much more miniaturized, accessible and low cost. And there at the moment are a number of merchandise anybody should purchase which might be custom-built to allow juice jacking assaults. […]
How severely ought to we take the latest FBI warning? An investigation by the myth-busting web site Snopes suggests the FBI tweet was only a public service announcement based mostly on a dated advisory. Snopes reached out to each the FBI and the FCC to request knowledge about how widespread the specter of juice jacking is in 2023. “The FBI replied that its tweet was a ‘commonplace PSA-type submit’ that stemmed from the FCC warning,” Snopes reported. “An FCC spokesperson informed Snopes that the fee needed to guarantee that their advisory on “juice-jacking,” first issued in 2019 and later up to date in 2021, was up-to-date in order to make sure ‘the customers have essentially the most up-to-date info.’ The official, who requested anonymity, added that that they had not seen any rise in cases of shopper complaints about juice-jacking.” The easiest way to guard your self from juice jacking is by utilizing your individual gear to cost and switch knowledge out of your gadget(s) to a different.
“Juice jacking is not doable if a tool is charged through a trusted AC adapter, battery backup gadget, or by means of a USB cable with solely energy wires and no knowledge wires current,” says safety researcher Brian Krebs. “In case you lack these items in a bind and nonetheless want to make use of a public charging kiosk or random pc, at the least energy your gadget off earlier than plugging it in.”
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